This disclosure relates generally to a turbomachine and, more particularly, to sealing areas of a turbomachine.
Turbomachines are well known. Turbomachines typically include a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. Air moves into the engine through the fan section. Airfoil arrays in the compressor section rotate to compress the air, which is then mixed with fuel and combusted in the combustor section. The products of combustion are expanded to rotatably drive airfoil arrays in the turbine section. Rotating the airfoil arrays in the turbine section drives rotation of the fan and compressor sections.
Turbomachines generate significant amounts of thermal energy during operation. Components within the turbomachine may become stressed if exposed to extremely varied levels of thermal energy. Some turbomachines reduce such stress by diverting relatively hot air from the flow path of the compressor section toward other areas of the compressor section. The diverted air heats the other areas, which lessens the thermal energy variations within the compressor section.
In some turbomachines, seals contact components, such as a rotor disk, to restrict flow of the diverted air. High contact stresses between the seal and the rotor disk can damage the seal, the rotor disk, or both. Adhesive wear and fretting wear are examples of such damage.